Believers must be on their guard lest they be robbed of any essential article of Christian faith by the cunning craftiness or plausible pretenses of ungodly men who pose as teachers and lie in wait to deceive. Our duty in the presence of the apostasy is to earnestly contend for the faith, trusting to be kept from stumbling by walking in the perpetual consciousness of God’s love through Christ, looking toward the day when we shall be presented before Him with exceeding joy.
Jude 1
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And of some have compassion, making a difference:
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Jude 1 Intro – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1 Intro: Salutation – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1 Intro: A Bond Slave – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1 Intro: Occasion of the Epistle – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:1 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:2 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:3 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:4 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1 Intro 2 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:5 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:6-7 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:8 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:9 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:10 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:11 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:12 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:13 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:14-15 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:16 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:17 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:18-19 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:19 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:20 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:21 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:22-23 – J. Vernon McGee
Jude 1:24-25 – J. Vernon McGee
The James mentioned in Jude 1 is almost certainly the brother of our Lord, who was the well-known and universally revered leader of the mother church at Jerusalem, and the writer of the Epistle that bears his name. Jude, therefore, was also related to our Lord as brother; see Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3. These two were probably with the Apostles after the Ascension, and finally engaged in evangelistic efforts. See Acts 1:14; I Corinthians 9:5.
We have no certain information concerning him, but Eusebius states that when Domitian ordered all the posterity of David to be slain, “some of the heretics accused the descendants of Jude, as the brother of our Savior according to the flesh, because they were of the family of David, and as such were also related to Christ.” It appears from the historian’s subsequent statement that these people made a good confession before their persecutors.
The Epistle was probably addressed to churches eastward of Judaea, among whom Jude had labored; and was probably written about a.d. 66. There are remarkable similarities between this Epistle and II Peter, indicating close communication between the two writers, as they looked out on the heretical teachers of the age and the low state of prevailing morals. —Through the Bible Day by Day
“Contend Earnestly for the Faith”
Salutation, Jude 1-2
1. Warning against Traitors, Jude 3-4
2. Depravity and Doom of the Ungodly, Jude 5-16
3. The Faith and Hope of the Christian, Jude 17-22
Conclusion, Jude 24-25 —Through the Bible Day by Day
Jude 1:1-11 – “Earnestly Contend for the Faith”
Kept is the keynote of this Epistle. It occurs in Jude 1, 6, 21, and in another form in Jude 24. Many evil doctrines and practices were intruding into the Church. Certain persons had crept in, who quoted the mercy of God as an excuse for immorality and practically disowned the teachings of the Lord Jesus.
In contrast with these were the disciples whom Jude addresses and who owned the Lord Jesus as their beloved “Despot,” (the Greek for Lord, Jude 4) They were kept for him, as the others were kept in chains. Let us also keep ourselves in the love of God, Jude 21. It is much easier to live consistently in hours of storm than in hours of ease.
Let us be warned against drifting back from our first faith. Let us take heed from the fate of fallen angels, of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Cain and Balaam, of Korah and others. Let us watch and pray and earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, Jude 3, bearing it through the world as the pilgrim host bore the sacred vessels in the days of Ezra. See Ezra 8:28. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Jude 1:12-25 – Beware of the Touch of the Ungodly
What traps and pitfalls beset us! How many have fallen who had as good or a better chance than we! The angels kept not their first estate; Adam, though created in innocency, fell; Cain was rejected; Balaam, who saw with open eyes, was slain; Korah, who had carried a censer filled with holy fire, was hurled into the abyss! How can we expect to stand! Be of good cheer! He is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless, Jude 24.
In the succession of terrible metaphors in Jude 12-13, notice that in each case there is promise without fulfillment and appearance without reality. Such is much of the Christian profession of the present day. And from time to time, as Enoch foretold, the day of the Lord comes, with its retribution for all such.
The four exquisite admonitions of Jude 20-21 are worth pondering. Keep yourselves in the main current of God’s love. Build your character after the likeness of Christ. Pray in the Holy Spirit; keep at the oriel window of hope. Christ is able to keep, and when at last we are presented by Him to the Father, we shall realize how much we owe Him. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Jude 1:21—Keep yourselves in the love of God.
There is a strong current running. If you keep in its main stream, it will bear you gently but irresistibly forward; but there are so many side-currents, that we must be very careful not to be swept out of it. You are in it by grace, now keep in it.
Build yourselves on your most holy faith.—Build, not on your emotions; nor on your conceptions of what may be right or wrong; nor on your experience—but on the strong and massive outlines of the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). We may well contend for it, if it is to yield the foundation of our spiritual upbuilding. In other words, you must come back, again and yet again, to the teachings of the Word of God, and specially of the life of Jesus.
Pray in the Holy Spirit.—Wait at the Divine footstool until your prayers are indicted by Him, and the spring arises from the depths of God. And whensoever you feel the inward movement of God’s Spirit, yield to it. He will correct. and prune from your prayers all that should not be in them. He will lead you out in intercession for others, and for the glory of Christ, of which you did not know yourself capable. To pray in the Holy Spirit is to let the Holy Spirit pray in you.
Look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.—Always be on the outlook. Let your soul stand on tiptoe in anticipation of his coming. Let yours be the words of the Canticles (Song of Solomon 5:2), “I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.” The heart that waits for Jesus, will not have to wait in vain. And even in the act of waiting, it will be kept in the love of God, which is also eternal life. —Our Daily Homily
Jude 1:21 – I once saw a dark shadow resting on the bare side of a hill. Seeking its cause, I saw a little cloud, bright as the light, floating in the clear blue above. Thus it is with our sorrow. It may be dark and cheerless here on earth; yet look above, and you shall see it to be but a shadow of His brightness Whose name is love. (Alford)